Staycation Baking

After all my experiments with gluten free baking I had to go back and get a fix of baking with wheat flour. After all, it is Spring Break and my son won't eat most of the gf experiments. He requested we make Alton Brown's pretzel recipe which was a lot of fun.

I made some blood orange sticky buns and decided to use the dough recipe to make buns with saffron and cardamon. These remind me of my mom's Easter bread she bakes in coffee tins or braids and bakes with Easter eggs on top. My mom makes really good bread and buns.

I also made some lime curd which tastes good on the saffron buns. I find that making the curd with honey gives it a deeper flavor. I used honey infused with lemon verbena leaves.

My son loves muffins so I made a couple of batches. These are orange carrot chocolate chip. I like using and reusing those silicon cupcake "papers".

This morning I decided to make oatmeal cookies and I added one half cup of hemp hearts to the recipe. Next time I'd add some hazelnuts as well. Considering it snowed this morning, it's no wonder I am celebrating Spring with a baking marathon! Oh look, the sun has just come out. It's time to head out into the garden!

Pssst: Speaking of baking, check out Amy Jo Ehman's charming story of a bakery in a small prairie town called Consul, Saskatchewan. (You'll have to scroll down one post.)